CASTLETON — Town officials accepted a petition for a new fire station and will be looking to sign a purchase and sale agreement with a local landowner before putting the matter up to a vote.

Charles Jacien, Castleton’s town manager, said Wednesday the Select Board asked him to proceed with signing an agreement with the owner of the Abatiell property located next to the medical center on Route 30 — the same 5-acre property that was considered earlier this month for the new town offices.

“We’re looking to get a sale agreement with a 60-day purchasing deadline so the vote will have to be within those 60 days,” Jacien said. “The Select Board wants to move forward.”

He said once the sale agreement is in place, they will put the issue before voters in a special election.

The petition received more than the required 10 percent of town voters.

With the petition, Castleton’s volunteer fire department seeks a $1.5 million bond to construct a new emergency service building. As it stands, the design is about 6,900 square feet with four drive-through bays that would hold seven trucks and two trailers, office space, a bathroom for decontamination and a training or meeting room.

This preliminary design was taken from the architectural plans drawn more than a year ago by NBF Architects when the town considered including a new town office building as well.

In addition to moving forward with the petition, Castleton town officials will be hiring Clay Point Associates out of Williston who will do asbestos, mold and lead testing at the old town offices.

This is the first time the town has done asbestos and lead testing at the historic building. A mold test conducted more than two years ago kick-started the contentious issue regarding the town offices.

Jacien said when Vermont Occupational Health and Safety Administration visited the office building close to two years ago, they were also worried about asbestos and lead along with the mold in the building.

He said they will start testing next week and it will take a couple of weeks before the results come in. The service will cost the town about $2,400.

“Once the tests are done, we will work with the architects to move forward and possibly seek a bond,” the town manager said.

Town officials decided to move forward with renovating the old town offices after a bond vote for new offices failed earlier this month.